Announcement of Classes: Fall 2017

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY ALL THE PARAGRAPHS BELOW THAT APPLY TO ENGLISH COURSES IN WHICH YOU WANT TO ENROLL. SOME COURSES HAVE LIMITED ENROLLMENT AND/OR HAVE EARLY APPLICATION PROCEDURES.

ALL ENGLISH COURSES: Some courses are in such high demand that they will end up having wait lists. If you end up having to put yourself on one for an English course, please attend the first few classes, as space might open up for you after classes have started.

BERKELEY CONNECT: Would you like to get together with your peers to talk about literature and books? Are you wondering what to do with your English major once you graduate? Do you want to hear about the books that most influenced your English professors? Do you want expert advice about which courses to take? Would you like to see your favorite professors debating about a great work of literature? If so, please join Berkeley Connect!

Berkeley Connect in English fosters community in the English Department and offers a space for “serious play”: small group discussions about ideas and texts, explorations of the many riches of the Berkeley campus, visits by department faculty and distinguished alumni, and one-on-one advice on courses and graduate programs from graduate students and professors.

Individual Berkeley Connect groups (each with about 15-20 students) meet every other week for one hour of “serious play.” On the off weeks, your graduate student mentor will hold office hours so that you can talk individually about issues important to you. Some of the small group meetings will be informal discussions of a range of literary issues, while others involve visits to places around campus (such as the Berkeley Art Museum and the Bancroft Library). On other weeks we will meet as a large group to hear from distinguished alumni, or to listen to Berkeley English professors talk about their own paths into literary study or debate key books in their field with other professors.

There are no essays, papers, exams, or outside reading for Berkeley Connect, just lots of good discussion, valuable advice, and all sorts of “serious play.” Although this is not a traditional course, each participant will enroll in and earn one unit for group independent study (as English 98BC or 198BC, on a Pass/NP basis). The program is not meant to offer extra help or tutoring on things like the mechanics of paper-writing or literary analysis; rather, it aims at providing a more relaxed and fun way to make the best of your Berkeley experience.

Berkeley Connect in English sections: English 98BC sections 1-3 are intended for lower-division (freshmen and sophomore) students. English 198BC sections 3, 4, 6, and 8 are intended for new junior transfer students. English 198BC sections 1, 2, 5, 7, and 9 are intended for upper-division (junior and senior) students.

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP COURSES (English 143A, 143B, 143N, 143T and 243B): These are instructor-approved courses, and enrollment is limited. Only continuing UC Berkeley students are eligible to apply. Only upper-division students should apply for 143A, 143B, 143N, and 143T; only graduate students should apply for 243B. In order to be considered for admission to any of these classes, you must electronically submit a writing sample AND an application form, using the link on the corresponding class entry on this "Announcement of Classes," BY 11 PM, THURSDAY, APRIL 27, AT THE LATEST. (If you are applying for more than one of these classes, you will need to submit an application and the corresponding writing sample for each of the classes/sections you are applying for.) The instructors will review the writing samples and applications, and the class lists will be posted on one of the partitions near the front desk as you enter Hearst Field Annex, Building B (the English Department office) on Thursday, May 4. Please come on or shortly after Thursday, May 4 to see if your name is on the class list for the section(s) you applied for; please check in person, as this information is NOT available over the phone (and please come within a few days after May 4, as the English Department will be moving back to Wheeler Hall sometime over the summer). ONLY STUDENTS ON THESE CLASS LISTS WILL BE ADMITTED TO THE CORRESPONDING CLASSES, AND EACH ADMITTED STUDENT WILL NEED TO OBTAIN HIS/HER INDIVIDUAL PERMISSION CODE FROM THE INSTRUCTOR AT THE FIRST OR SECOND CLASS MEETING. NO ONE WILL THEREFORE BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY ENROLL IN THESE PARTICULAR CLASSES BEFORE THESE CLASSES START MEETING IN THE FALL.

ENGLISH 190 (RESEARCH SEMINAR): English 190 is intended for senior and junior English majors. During at least Phase I of enrollment, only already-declared majors who will be in their fourth or third year as of fall '17 will be able to enroll in this course; upper-division students who intend to major in English and have taken some courses that will count towards the major but who have not yet declared will need to put themselves on the wait list of the section they are interested in taking, and they will be admitted later (probably towards the end of Phase II) if and when there is still room for them. Due to space limitations (maximum enrollment is 18 students per section), students may initially enroll in or wait-list themselves for only one section of English 190. However, if it turns out that some sections still have room in them at or near the end of Phase II appointments, we may loosen the restrictions for admission to those sections.

ENGLISH H195A (HONORS COURSE): This is an instructor-approved course open only to senior English majors with an overall G.P.A. of 3.51 or higher and a G.P.A. of 3.65 or higher in courses taken at Berkeley in the major. In order to be considered for admission to H195A, you must electronically apply, using the link on the course listing in this "Announcement of Classes"; your submission will need to include: (a) the on-line application form, along with PDFs of: (b) your Academic Summary (go into Cal Central, click your "My Academics" tab, then click "View Academic Summary" and "Print as PDF"); (c) your non-UC Berkeley transcript(s), if any; (d) a critical paper (in a PDF or Word document) that you wrote for another class (the length of this paper not being as important as its quality); and (e) a personal statement (in a PPF or Word document), including why you are interested in taking this course and indicating your academic interest and, if possible, the topic or area you are thinking of addressing in your honors thesis. These applications must be submitted, via the corresponding link, BY 11 PM, FRIDAY, MAY 12. Since the department must review the G.P.A.s of H195A applicants for courses taken all the way through the Spring 2017 semester, and the instructors must carefully assess the applications, it will not be possible to determine who has been admitted until the fall semester is about to start. Therefore, applicants will be contacted by email sometime between late July and late August to be informed if they have been selected for admission, and, if so, to which section. (Since there might be more applicants for one section than the other, some students might end up being placed in the section that was not their first choice.) EACH STUDENT ADMITTED TO H195A WILL NEED TO OBTAIN HIS OR HER INDIVIDUAL PERMISSION CODE AT THE FIRST CLASS MEETING FROM THE CORRESPONDING INSTRUCTOR. NO ONE WILL THEREFORE BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY ENROLL IN THIS PARTICULAR COURSE BEFORE INSTRUCTION BEGINS IN THE FALL.

DE-CAL CLASSES: All proposals for Fall 2017 DE-Cal courses must be submitted at the front desk at the English Department office (in Hearst Field Annex, Building B) BY 4:00 P.M., THURSDAY, APRIL 27. Please note that individual faculty members may sponsor only one DE-Cal course per semester. Students wishing to offer a DE-Cal course must provide, to the English Department office, the following for approval: 1) a completed COCI Special Studies Course Proposal Form, available at: academic-senate.berkeley.edu/committee/coci/339, for 198 classes. Students must download and complete this form and obtain the proposed faculty sponsor’s signature on it before submitting it, along with the other necessary paperwork; 2) a copy of the syllabus of the proposed course; 3) a copy of the course description, including the criteria for passing the course. A few days after the April 27 submission deadline, the students whose proposals have been approved by the Department Chair will be notified that they need to see Laurie Kerr, in Hearst Field Annex, Building B, in order to arrange for a classroom for their course and to work out a few other details before the delivery of copies of their approved proposals to COCI and to the DE-Cal office.

INDEPENDENT STUDY COURSES: These are instructor-approved courses and require a written application, available (until June or July) from the rack at the front desk in Hearst Field Annex, Building B. Completed applications should be signed by the instructor and returned by the student to the drop box at the front desk (in Hearst Field Annex, Building B). Students will be emailed the class number that they will use to enroll in the class on Cal Central. Often students will elect to wait until fall courses have started to apply for independent study courses. Note that as of sometime in the summer (probably June or July), the English Department Office will be moving back to Wheeler Hall, so that is where the application forms will be available as of that time.

UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS INTERESTED IN BECOMING WRITING TUTORS (ENGLISH 310): This is an instructor-approved course with limited enrollment. In order to be considered for admission, you must pick up an application for an interview at the Student Learning Center, Atrium, in the Cesar Chavez Student Center, during the spring semester through finals week or during the week before fall semester classes begin. No one may apply after Wednesday of the first week of classes. Students admitted to 310 will need to appear in person at the Student Learning Center, at the time the Learning Center specifies, in order to obtain the course control number and then enroll. See the course description in this Announcement of Classes under English 310 for more details.